Victoria Police delays give high-risk suspects 41 days grace period before firearm prohibition orders are served

No money, competing priorities: Victoria Police delays give high-risk suspects 41 days grace period before firearm prohibition orders are served.

Toby Mitchell and Sam Abdulrahim.

Dangerous 41-day delays in police slapping firearm prohibition orders on high-risk suspects are undermining Victoria’s anti-gun laws, with one man shooting another before he could be served with an order, and another assembling a collection of “firearms-related items”.

Victoria Police has been placed on notice by the Independent Broad-based Anti-corruption Com­m­ission over the delays, with the watchdog urging FPOs to be served on suspects as a “priority”.

The revelations are the latest problems uncovered by The Australian’s special investigation, Target on Guns, which is examining problems in firearms legislation and the 27-year failure to establish a national firearm register.

The firearm prohibition laws allow Victoria Police to launch snap raids on suspects without a warrant but do not come into force until they have been served. The bans on acquiring, possessing, carrying, or using any firearm or firearm-related item are taking an average of 41 days to be served after the order is made.

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The key findings from IBAC’s report reveal that between 2018 and 2020 there was an average 38-day delay between an FPO being made and served.

Victoria Police confirmed the average delay was now 41 days – falling from a high of 49 days in 2021, to 32 this year.

Two crimes committed during those delay periods included a man who shot another man over a drug dispute in regional Victoria, and a second case involving a man who could not be located for eight months after an FPO was made against him. When he was eventually located, he was found in possession of a number of “firearm-related items”.

More than 2100 FPOs have been served on high-risk suspects including bikies and gangsters since the laws were introduced. These include Toby Mitchell, a former Bandido-turned Mongols member; former Rebels president Colin “the Snake’’ Websdale; Peter “Skitzo’’ Hewat, a senior member of the Hells Angels; and former ­national president of the Hells ­Angels Luke Moloney.

Senior Rebels bikie Colin Websdale

The delays were identified by IBAC in a review tabled in the Victorian parliament this week, which said: “IBAC is of the view that, once an FPO is made, its service must be given priority. This is because an FPO is made on the basis of an affirmative conclusion by the decision-maker that there is a risk that the FPO subject will come into possession of a firearm in circumstances where the firearm may be used to endanger the peace and safety of the public.

“Although there is no legislative time frame as to when an FPO must be served, given that the basis for making an FPO is to mitigate or control risk to public safety, it is reasonable to expect that service of an FPO would occur as soon as possible.’’

IBAC also noted it took an average of 20 days between police applying for an FPO and it being made. Victoria Police said that figure was now an average of 21 days, meaning it takes an average of two months, or 62 days, from the time an application is made until it is served.

In the worst delay revealed by IBAC, a suspect was not served for 579 days after he relocated to Queensland, and difficulties were encountered in finding a special constable to serve him.

Police said delays were triggered by suspects going on the run, fleeing interstate, and being locked up in jail. Limited resources and “competing priorities’’ as well as complex planning also contributed to delays.

Queensland police officer Constable Rachel McCrow (L) who was killed in a shooting at Wiembilla in Queensland on December, 12, 2022.

Queensland police officer Constable Matthew Arnold who was killed in a shooting at Wiembilla in Queensland on December 12 last year.

IBAC reported that Victoria Police had said it could not afford to upgrade its Firearm Prohibition Order Registry. “Victoria Police advise IT improvements are needed to build into the current system but they have not been proceeded with due to estimated costs being beyond budgetary allowance,’’ the report states.

“IBAC encourages Victoria Police to ensure that the FPO Registry is appropriately resourced including to allow for necessary IT enhancements or upgrades to the FPO Registry database in order to mitigate risks of error and incomplete data and to provide for efficiencies within the FPO Registry.’’

The Firearm Prohibition Order Registry is not part of Victoria Police’s firearm register, which is also plagued by ageing technology and a lack of funds.

The Australian revealed last week that Victoria had joined Tasmania, South Australia, the ACT and the Northern Territory in demanding Canberra fund updates of their firearm registries in order to make them compatible with a national register.

The funding stoush stalled the rollout of a national firearm registry, first agreed after the massacre of 35 people by a lone gunman in Tasmania in 1996, and the subject of a renewed push after two police officers and a neighbour were killed at Wieambilla in Queensland in December last year.

One of the Wieambilla shooters was a licensed firearm owner with guns registered in both NSW and Queensland.

A funding framework for the national register, which has been costed at $200m with a $30m plug-in’ cost for states and territories, could be agreed to by national cabinet as early as next week.